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Doughnuts will fuel Youth Focus charity bike ride

ONE will make 10,000 doughnuts and the other will ride 10,000 kilometres.

After a 35-year friendship, Mary Street Bakery co-owner Paul Aron and cyclist Matthew Sevior have teamed up to raise $10,000 for Youth Focus to support young people aged 12-25 with mental health issues and to prevent suicide.

Mr Sevior and his four mates, who make up team Brookfield Rail 2, will cycle 3000km from Albany to Perth in March for the Youth Focus Hawaiian Ride for Youth, stopping at 23 schools along the way, promoting positive mental health awareness to more than 3500 students.

To give the campaign a boost, Mr Sevior approached his mate Mr Aron for a sweet fundraising idea: whip up 10,000 doughnuts in three months.

“We always do a special doughnut, but for this fundraiser we gave it a name, Double Strawberry Rainbow, and got kids down to do a taste test and they approved, so that’s what we ran with,” Mr Aron said.

The bakery began selling the donut before Christmas, in which $1 from each one sold goes to Youth Focus.

“Up until the ride is about three months, but we are also doing a donut drive, like a lamington drive where schools, businesses and individuals can pre-order any doughnuts and $1 will go to the fundraiser,” he said.

The two men said they were both keen to join the campaign, as both had been touched by tragedy related to youth mental illness and suicide.

“A neighbour of mine, who was about 27, committed suicide about two years ago, so that’s why I got involved in Youth Focus originally,” Mr Sevior said.

“We were good mates, we were really close with the family, they look after our kids and we socialise with them a lot.”

Mr Aron said it was important to quash the stigma of mental illness.

“I think we’ve all been touched by mental illness and youth suicide. I know people I grew up with that have committed suicide,” he said.

“I’m an employer of a lot of young people, so mental health issues, raising awareness and taking away the stigma of mental health issues is something that’s really important.”

The doughnuts will be available until March 31 at the Highgate, West Leederville and QV1 bakeries.